Quote: Original post by Wan
Anyway, I see that the last census in the Netherlands was performed in 1971, well before I was born. Hence my surprise.

I can understand your surprise. In a geographically small country with a good national health care system and an efficient bureaucracy, a census would not make sense. Birth figures could by gathered from hospitals, death figures could be gathered from hospitals and morgues. Immigration figures could be gathered from the agency that gives passport visas and so on.

Aside from historic legal reasons (that is the requirement in our Constitution), the United States is geographically large, the health care system is piecemeal, the bureaucracy inefficient (on purpose). Sizable numbers of people here live "off the grid" - undocumented workers from Mexico and Central America, others who overstayed their visas, people who were home birthed and home schooled. In order to count these people it's necessary to send someone out in person.



I realize that the word "lynching" carries with it certain connotations. I used it in the title because the man was found hanging from a tree with a word written on his chest. I think that fits the definition of a lynching. The question is what motivatied this barbarism.

Quote: Original post by LessBread
The question is what motivatied this barbarism.

People tend to look for ideological excuses to act on what's already inside of them. I'm sure the perpetrators could give you a lecture about how their politics/religion/disenfranchisement justified it. But in the end, people are not good.

More details emerge: Census worker's death by asphyxiation might not be homicide, police say

Quote:
Asphyxiation caused the death of a federal census worker whose body was found at a rural Clay County cemetery with a rope around his neck, preliminary autopsy results show, but state police have not determined the death was a homicide.
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However, on Thursday, police had not confirmed Sparkman was even doing census work in Clay County at the time he died, said Capt. Lisa Rudzinski, commander of the state police post handling the investigation.
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Sparkman had a rope around his neck that was attached to a tree, but he was not hanging in the sense that many people envision that, she said.

Sparkman's body was in contact with the ground, state police said in a news release.
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